Road works lifted – as rail engineering proceeds… 

28 December 2018

One of the eternal mysteries of the festive season is the roads getting busier as rail travel slackens off. This drives sensible behaviour – every year Highways England ‘lifts’ roadworks to help the surge of traffic get through, while Network Rail’s ‘orange army’ descends on the quieter railway. 

So, it is good to see Highways England picking up on one of the recommendations in our 2016 report on roadworks and incidents: 

Some speed limits in roadworks have been raised, where it can be done safely (for both workers and drivers). It will be interesting to see the driver reaction to this. Raising the speed limit is only part of the issue – lanes need to be wide enough for such changes to feel safe. 

Meanwhile, all eyes will be on the railway as January 2nd when the return to work approaches. We seem to have come a long way from the Finsbury Park queues of some years ago, but passengers will want to rely on the promise that the railway will be fully back up and running.